Sailing: Golding in position to accelerate

The British quest for honours in the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre to Bahia Salvador, Brazil, was in good shape yesterday though the fast boys out front were still the favourites in the 60-foot trimaran and the Open 60 classes.

Conditions were fast as the fleet of 14 tris, a dozen 60s and the seven 50s worked their way west across the Bay of Biscay with Mike Golding confident that, although fourth in his Open 60 Ecover, his more westerly position would soon pay dividends.

He is 25 miles behind the leaders, Roland Jourdain in Sill and Bernard Gallay in Voila, and just five behind Mark Turner and Marcus Hutchinson in Kingfisher. Making up to 20 knots in a north-easterly gusting up to 25, Golding reported they were hand-helming, as opposed to using the auto-pilot, for most of the time.

Alex Bennett and Paul Larsen had an eight mile advantage in the lead of the Open 50 class on the third day and with 3,900 miles still to go.